A Portrait of Empire

The evening of 10 December 1776 was exceptionally cold. It had been a trying winter for Londoners in more ways than one. News from across the Atlantic was getting worse every day and no one seemed to agree on the best path ahead. Some thought the American colonists were justified in their bid for independence. Others believed that hanging was not punishment enough for their belligerence. The weather didn’t help. Yet, undeterred by it all, that night the members and students of the Royal Academy of the Arts scurried up the steps into Somerset House on the Strand for their annual prize-giving ceremony. Perhaps they were eager for some distraction from the splintering of their empire. Maybe they wanted simply to find out who were the medal winners for that year and to listen to their president’s seventh formal address.